Panthers beat on Canucks on Hall of Fame Night

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So the season has to be a wash now, right?

Thursday night at Rogers Arena had all the makings of a heart wrenching, feel good Canucks win, as they honoured three of the greatest players to ever wear a Canucks sweater.

To celebrate their induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto last month, the Canucks welcomed Henrik and Daniel Sedin, along with Roberto Luongo, back onto the ice at Rogers Arena, where they created so many lasting memories for generations of Canucks fans.

Bobby Lou and the Twins were greatest with massive applause and “LUUUUUUUU” chants as they made their way down the carpet to centre ice, after each was introduced with a separate video package, narrated by former Head Coach Alain Vigneault.  It was also the Hall of Fame netminder’s first chance to publicly address the Vancouver fans since being traded before the 2014 NHL Trade Deadline.  A glassy eyed Luongo spoke fondly of the City and organization that gave him the best eight years of his career, and how playing for the Canucks elevated him to be a better player on the ice, and a better person off of it.

“On a personal note, I really wanted to thank you guys for pushing me to be a better goaltender, pushing me to be a better person every single night.” -Roberto Luongo

The three newly minted Hall of Famers were then joined at centre ice by representatives from each of Vancouver’s three First Nations, and honoured with a traditional blanketing ceremony, symbolizing the highest form of respect and honor from the First Nations of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh.

If the night ended after Roberto Luongo dropped the puck for the ceremonial faceoff, this would go down in Canucks history as one of the best nights in the history of the franchise, as three heroes got their flowers.

Unfortunately, the Canucks still had a hockey game to play.

Vancouver welcomed the Florida Panthers for the “hockey” portion of Thursday night’s festivities.  The Panthers had been skidding as of late, losing six of their last seven games coming into last night’s game, which certainly wasn’t a great look for last season’s Presidents Trophy winners.  Thatcher Demko was back between the pipes for the Canucks, after riding the pine behind Spencer Martin for the better part of the past week.  Demko was tested early and often in the first period of play, as the Canucks has issues getting their legs underneath them for the second straight game, almost like they were dealing with jet lag, despite the fact that they’re at home.  The Panthers fired 12 shots at the Canucks goaltender in the first seventeen minutes of the first period, with Demko stopping all of them.  This was a welcome sight for Canucks fans, who have been desperate to see their world-class goaltender get back into world-class form.  Then came the most 2022-23 Canucks minute of the 2022-23 season, so far.

Luke Schenn picked up a loose puck in the corner, and just tried to chip it up to his winger at the point.  The only problem was this winger was nowhere to be found.  The puck, instead, found it’s way on to the tape of Panther Josh Mahura at the top of the right circle, who feathered a beauty saucer pass to Matthew Tkachuk, who waited out Thatcher Demko, as the netminder overcorrected and slid out of his net, and popped it in on the backhand to make it 1-0 Panthers.

Still in that same minute, Ethan Bear would be stripped of the puck in the defensive zone, giving Florida a chance to go back to work.  After Demko made a pretty nice right pad save off the initial shot from Sam Reinhart at the top of the right circle, Reinhart raced to his own rebound in the opposite corner, threw it up top to Gustav Forsling, who beamed one through traffic, beating Demko down low to make it two nothing for the Cats, thirty-five seconds after Tkachuk opened the scoring.

Once again, still in the same minute, the Panthers came back into the Canucks zone, with numbers.  Patric Hornqvist took the first shot, which Demko kicked out, Eric Staal was stopped on the rebound, Demko stopped that as well, Hornqvist got a third chance which Thatcher stopped, but hurt himself in the process, leaving a loose puck for Ryan Lomberg to knock home to make it three goals in fifty-nine seconds for the Florida Panthers.  This was also the end of the night for Thatcher Demko, as he was helped off the ice by the Canucks training staff following the play.  The goalie was seen grabbing at his right hamstring on the play, and Demko does have a history with hip injuries.  Demko’s evaluation has yet to be made public.

Spencer Martin would come in, in relief of the injured Demko, making twelve saves on fourteen shots in just over forty minutes of playing time.  The lone bright spot for the Vancouver fans at the Rog came in the second period, where Dakota Joshua and Brock Boeser gained the Florida zone on a two on one.  Joshua tried to throw a cross crease pass for Boeser, but the puck just ran off the end of his stick.  Luckily for Joshua and the Canucks, the puck ran off the stick and between the legs of Florida goaltender Spencer Knight, breaking his chances for the shutout bid.

After two more Panthers goals, both from Sam Bennett, the Canucks dropped their second straight game, both 5-1 losses on home ice.  Postgame, forward JT Miller equated the performance to “immaturity” and claims that it’s something the team “is working on”.

As for the Canucks fanbase, it seems like the loss has officially got the bandwagon looking towards the Draft Lottery, as opposed to the playoffs.  The allure of drafting hometown boy and WHL phenom, Connor Bedard, and putting him in the sweater of the team he grew up cheering for is pretty tempting.  Now with the apparent injury to goaltender Thatcher Demko, it seems like the fanbase is now fully embracing the tank.

 

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